"I love you" is a simple enough phrase. For some, it is used exclusively towards family members. For others (such as myself), "I love you" is something said more often than not. Frankly, if I don't say "I love you" at some point during the day, something is probably wrong with me. But can saying "I love you" too much dilute the meaning of it? I think not.
There are all sorts of types of love. The love I have for my family is different from the love I have for my roommates, which is different from the love I have for my future spouse. Saying those three little words is how we tell someone we care about them. The reality of it is that not only are there different types of love, but there are different "levels" of love. I love my sisters more now than I did before leaving for college, I love my roommates more now than I did the first day of freshman year, and I certainly hope that the love I have for any boyfriend is incomparable to the love I have for my future husband.
I have a terrible condition where I will say "I love you" to pretty much anything. If someone brings me food, I tell them I love them. If someone takes their keys out so I don't have to, I tell them I love them. If someone sends me an email that I've been waiting for, I tell them I love them. Really, it's unhealthy to say "I love you" as much as I do. But this is my defense: In John 13:34, Jesus tells us to "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
God gave each and every one of us the incredible ability to love, but it's up to us how we use it. I see it in my parents when they drop what they're doing to serve each other, I see it in my best friend when she answers the phone to talk to me at 1a.m., I see it in the way my roommates save a plate of dinner for me after a late class. There are literally tens of thousands of different ways to show someone you love them, my personal favorite happens to be saying "I love you."
So if I tell you that I love you within the first few days of meeting you, don't take it in a weird way, because I've merely started to love you. Some people simply love easier, quicker, and more deeply than others, and there's nothing we can do about it. We all have a God-given ability to love, we should use it as much as we can! So next time you see someone who needs a little love in their life, give it to them! Love makes us human, and, to quote "How I Met Your Mother" -- "love is the best thing we do."
